Canada’s international student population is rising steadily and is consistently among the top countries. Marc Miller recently revealed the country’s plan to welcome 900,000 international students in 2023. This means that Canada is already looking forward to this target. IRCC’s recent data depicts that compared to the above estimate, the figures might be low.
Canada’s international student population is rising steadily
A document also displayed that Canada will be accepting 1.4 million applications from international students by 2027. Additionally, IRCC even revealed the rapid coming through of several international students. The department talked about establishing trusted universities and colleges, which will lead to the faster processing of study permits. The Globe and Mail comprised this document. It also reveals that between 2019 and 2022, international students have increasingly applied for study permits. This implies nearly 300,000 applications from international students annually.
The same document further states that in 2023, Canada will witness 949,000 international students and nearly a million in 2024.
However, the number will increasingly rise to 1.1 million in 2025. It will further rise to 1.28 million in 2026 and 1.4 million in 2027.
The Canadian government issued a massive number of study permits in 2023
AppleBoard’s recent blog has analyzed IRCC’s data between January and June 2023. Also, Canada’s government sent out over 280,000 new study permits to international students. This reflects an increase of 77 percent from 2022’s data within the same period.
During this time in 2022, the government managed to process more than 43,000 study permit applications. This was in the initial months of 2022 and shows a rise of 49 percent. Besides this, in 2022, Canada planned to welcome a massive figure of 551,405 international students. They came from 184 countries. Additionally, toward the latter part of 2022, around 807,750 international students held valid study permits. These figures are massively high.
However, per the current processing standard of these study permits, the number of study permits issued will rise to 600,000 in 2023. This will be a massive record for Canada.
The demographic outlook of international students in Canada
So far, the best Canadian provinces among students have been Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. Considering the expensive housing and living costs, students usually prefer Canada for their studies. This is primarily due to the decreased tuition fees and nominal cost of living compared to other countries.
Factually, between January and June 2023, each Canadian province issued a massive amount of study permits compared to 2022.
For instance, the number of new study permits issued in Alberta accounted for 14,536. This implies a 139 percent growth in study permits issued by each province in Canada. This is between January and June 2022.
Similarly, Saskatchewan issued 4,430 study permits, which indicated a rise of 116 percent compared to those issued in 2022 during the same period. Even the study permit number significantly increased in Nigeria, Guinea, Nepal, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. This is an indication that each of the provinces has either issued increased study permits or exceeded them compared to the 2022 numbers issued.
According to this steady rise in study permits being issued, nearly 40,000 Nigerian students might receive study permits in 2023. This will make Nigeria the second-largest country contributing to Canada’s international student growth.
The future prospects
IRCC’s data demonstrates that the number of international students in Canada and study permits will not decrease. Moreover, international students currently seek diversified provinces for their studies. Therefore, educational firms in various provinces are witnessing international students from diverse backgrounds. These patterns will likely continue in the upcoming years, too. 2023 will eventually emerge as a massively record-breaking year for Canada’s international students.
